After the system restarted, the usual message popped up again.

  [Congratutions ! It’s been exactly a year since you started your journey with Path of Destiny. You have achieved tremendous results ! You are the first to advance so far in a year !]

  But the next one was different.

  [Path of Destiny rewards you by lifting some restrictions.]

  Cyrielle was confused. She expected another ‘peek into the truth’, but the situation was strange.

  ‘Am I not supposed to learn more ?’

  Hopefully, the system seemed to recover his usual demeanor fairly quickly.

  [What you gain depends on how far you advance on the path. But I can assure you that lifting restrictions is way more useful than a peek into the truth.]

  ‘How so ?’

  [Now I can answer more questions and help you more easily. It means you can advance even faster.]

  Cyrielle sprung up, jumping out the couch.

  ‘Is that true ? I can ask you everything I want ?’

  She felt amusement coming from Path of Destiny.

  [I can’t answer everything but I will certainly be more useful.]

  Cyrielle took a deep breath to calm down and sat back on the couch. After organizing her thoughts, she started to ask questions.

  ‘Can I know more things about Path of Destiny ? What are the conditions for someone to obtain it ?’

  [I can give you a big clue. Buddhism.]

  ‘What does that even mean !’

  She sighed in frustration and leaned against the backrest. What did Buddhism have to do with anything ? It wasn’t a religion that was widely practiced in France, it felt out of pce. Contrary to the positive karma, this clue was useless.

  ‘Wait… Karma ? Buddhism ? Don’t people’s karma get measured for reincarnation in Buddhism, or something like that ?’

  [Now you get it.]

  Path of Destiny had something to do with reincarnation ? It felt so unrealistic, but a system that gives you abilities is strange in the first pce. Did that mean that Cyrielle was someone else’s reincarnation, or she was going to be in the future ? Was Path of Destiny trying to raise her karma to send her to Nirvana ? Cyrielle quickly put aside her thoughts. The system gave a clue instead of clearly speaking about this, so it meant the restrictions were still strong on this subject matter, she wouldn’t obtain anything. She opted for a change of topic.

  ‘Why didn’t I get Path of Destiny as soon as I was born ? I am the only one who got it so te from what you said.’

  The system seemed to glitch, pausing for a moment. In the end, a blue chat bubble appeared again.

  [Someone interfered for your own good. I can’t say more.]

  Cyrielle nodded, scratching her cheek while thinking.

  ‘I already guessed that there were several people associated with Path of Destiny, I know you are not the only one. So, you are saying that someone deyed the appearance of the system for my own good ? Well, I guess that’s true. When you are a baby, what type of opportunities can you have ? Walking earlier ? Making friends ? The abilities given wouldn’t be that good. But if I get all those when I am an adult and the opportunities carry more weight, so surely the abilities would be more useful.’

  Path of Destiny stayed silent, so Cyrielle continued her reflection.

  ‘More than that, if I was very talented and successful since I was a baby, maybe I wouldn’t be who I am today. If your objective is positive karma and the impact I have on others, it’s better to give me abilities ter when I have suffered a bit and seen the bad side of people, so I can become a better person that isn’t so naive.’

  This time Path of Destiny cut her off.

  [That’s false. Even if you had your abilities since your birth, you still would have been a good person. It’s the way your personality is. After suffering as much as you did, some people become bitter and revengeful, but you aren’t that way.]

  Cyrielle thought for a bit, but ended up nodding.

  ‘You’re right. So I assume the reason is the quality of the ability. I need to do something, and that thing requires me to have good abilities.’

  She felt the anger of the system, and the next chat bubble was written in bold letters, as if it was screaming.

  [Why can’t you imagine that people want your good ? What if the reason the appearance of Path of Destiny was deyed wasn’t to use you more effectively, but to save you ?]

  Cyrielle flinched at the sudden surge of emotions.

  ‘What do you mean ?’

  The system seemed to calm down and a more normal looking message appeared.

  [Your father.]

  ‘Oh…’

  It made sense. If Cyrielle had been talented since her birth, her father would have surely taken advantage of her when she was still young, and at this time of her life she would have been trapped. Maybe her father would have prepared contracts bidding her to him, or maybe he would have created weaknesses for her, making it impossible for her to run away from him. He was used to this type of thing, being an executive in a billion dolr company and climbing his way up at a rapid pace.

  ‘It would have been really bad if I was still in contact with him… Hopefully, he doesn’t have anything against me now. Maybe he still has one or two photos of when I was young, but I changed a lot since then so it wouldn’t be useful for him in any way. I don’t know who is the person who deyed the appearance of the system, but thank you.’

  Cyrielle felt warm feelings of affection coming from Path of Destiny. And smiled. It was reassuring to know that more people wanted only good things for her and were actually helping her. Even if those people were mysterious beings with the power to change her body and give her abilities.

  ‘Now that this topic is settled, can we talk about the ‘path’ you have chosen for me ? It’s a bit mysterious. Do I have to do something in particur ?’

  [No, you just have to do what you like. It helps if more people are inspired by you, but even if you stayed in your own ne and didn’t go out in public, you would advance eventually.]

  ‘So it’s not about fame and popurity, then ? Do I just need to do everything I want ?’

  [Do what makes you happy and live a good life.]

  Cyrielle scratched her hair. It didn’t really make sense to her. She had thought that her path had something to do with being popur since she needed to produce positive karma for the system, and to make an impact in as many people’s lives as possible, you need to be famous. But now Path of Destiny said that it wasn’t the goal ? It was confusing.

  ‘What do you gain from me being happy ?’

  [It’s not about us gaining something. You will understand ter.]

  She shrugged. She didn’t get it, but the answer wouldn’t magically appear before her if she thought more about it, so it was best to focus on something else.

  ‘What are the improvements for the helper module ?’

  [Chose a goal.]

  Cyrielle walked to her atelier and took out the piece of paper hidden under her keyboard. Now, a lot more goals were achieved.

  -Make an album

  -Concert in front of a thousand people

  -Make a collection

  -Fashion book

  -Home decor book

  -Makeup lookbook

  -Model for a runway

  -Win a rosette in horse jumping

  -Having 5 diplomas

  -Do characters designs for a videogame

  -Make the pns for a building

  -Act in a movie

  ‘I don’t know… Home decor book ?’

  The system seemed to be loading, and suddenly a blue square appeared in front of her eyes. On the side, the goal was dispyed, and under it were small bubbles linked by lines. It looked like a skill tree in a video game.

  ‘What’s this ?’

  [All the different ways you can achieve that goal. Choose one and it will unlock the quest to make it happen, following the tree.]

  Cyrielle smiled wide.

  ‘Oh, that’s really good ! So, let’s see…’

  The first bubble was named ‘The set creator’. The description was straightforward : Design sets for movies and series. The next bubble was called ‘The renovator’ . It consisted of improving existing rooms, like she had been doing for her MyTube channel. She browsed through the dozens of small bubbles until she reached the st one.

  [Queen of sleep : Build a hotel and design each room.]

  ‘Creating my own hotel ? It seems fun ! I have a lot of money that I don’t use anyway since I stay at home, should I try it ?’

  Creating a home design book based on a whole hotel seemed so fun that she couldn’t resist the idea. It was an enormous project for someone who had no experience, but Cyrielle wasn’t worried.

  ‘You will help me anyway, right ? I also have Julie, the most capable CEO in the whole world. Oh, won’t she go absolutely nuts if I tell her that I want to build and design an entire hotel ?’

  Cyrielle ughed at the thought and focused back on the skill tree.

  ‘I choose ‘Queen of sleep’.’